A plot by separatist terror group ETA to blow up several targets linked to a port in northern Spain has been foiled by the authorities, local newspapers have reported.
Aritz Arginzoiz Zubiarre was arrested on Tuesday at a bus stop in Santander, in northern Spain as he was waiting for explosives that would allow him to strike at several possible targets.
According to one of Spain's major dailies, El Pais, one of these targets would have been the Pont-Aven ferry, which carries up to 2,400 passengers between Portsmouth and Santander twice a week.
Other targets included a courthouse in Santander and a local plaza.
Local media cited unnamed sources in saying that 22-year-old Zubiarre was arrested with detailed plans of all these three sites as well as a Smith & Wesson pistol, a detonator and false identity documents.
He had been staying at a nearby campsite with girlfriend Saioa Sanchez Iturregi who is thought to have been an accomplice.
Several years ago ETA tried to bomb the ferry from Valencia to the Balearic Islands but a breakdown in the van carrying the explosives led to the attack being called off.
Like then, the present attack was thought to be targeting Spain's tourism industry, one of the country's main sources of revenue.
And in what was a good day for law enforcement on the ETA front, two further suspected ETA members were detained in Angouleme, in France.
ETA is a group that wants independence for the Basque country regions; it has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960's.
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